


Banks

by kaithartic (bluedreaming)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 12:50:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3937417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluedreaming/pseuds/kaithartic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Warnings:</b> artistic mentions of red and casual bystander death</p>
<p>Baekhyun can't believe that Lu Han really loves him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Banks

That's what the post-it note on Baekhyun's computer monitor says in the morning, when he wakes up and stumbles out of his bedroom, rubbing his eyes.   _Where's the coffee?_ He's fumbling around the counter, more than half-asleep, when he remembers.

_A splitting headache — lights — shouting — broken dishes and the sound of crunching as he walks — red and red red and his head is red and his hands are red and his footsteps leaving red behind him —_

There's nothing now. His eyes are open but the floor gleams white in the light of another cold winter morning, the city smothered in a thick blanket of frozen water.

Lu Han is nowhere to be found.

Time moves too quickly all of a sudden without the crutch of caffeine — he's running barefoot down the stairs — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 flights down because the elevator is broken again but he knows it's too late before the -40 degree Celsius degree air hits his lungs like cold steel knives — the street is empty at 8 am on a Sunday in midwinter, every last track hidden under the white.

"You never loved me!"

That's all he can solidly remember from last night, too many drinks and shouting at Lu Han across the kitchen —

"You didn't love me at the beginning and you still don't love me now."

_Why were we even arguing?_

His feet are sticking to the pavement, tiny scratches on the soles leaking heartbeats into the ground; he trudges back up the flights of stairs, wincing.

"Your fault. Your fault. Your fault..." Every footstep accuses him and he has no excuse.

.. / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..-

It's cold at the bus stop. Lu Han wrinkles his nose behind the thick scarf covering his face, wool cap pulled low to hide his red and puffy eyes.

_So what if I've been crying._

He doesn't regret leaving — he was so angry and there was red everywhere and he just needed to get out. The coffee shop where he usually retreated when he and Baekhyun had an argument hadn't been enough either; Chanyeol had been swamped with university students downing quadruple shot expressos to get through another sleepless night of exam revising and his usual sidekick Zitao had gone home for the holidays.

_The holidays._ His stomach sinks down to the tips of his freezing toes.

So when he'd retreated back to the apartment, macchiato in hand and feet aching from the endless climb only to face the mess in the kitchen and trailed into the bedroom, the bottoms of Baekhyun's feet stained scarlet to match the red on his hands, there'd been nothing left but an aching, choking tiredness.  The silence had pressed in from all sides, making every motion feel like he was fighting against a heavy current as he washed the crimson evidence away and swept the broken crockery into the garbage.

Baekhyun was sighing in his sleep and the bed suddenly looked too small.

So now he was sitting at the bus stop, waiting all night for the 9 am to C— and he couldn't even remember what the argument had been about. _Or who started it._

"I really do." His voice cracks in the cold, muffled behind his scarf, and a tiny trail of frozen breath manages to trickle out.

He doesn't know what the fight was about but he knows what the problem is.

"I really really really love you and I don't know why you can't accept that." It's lucky there's no one else at the bus stop but to be quite frank he's past caring.

_Why won't you let me love you?_

.--. .-.. . .- ... . / -... . .-.. .. . ...- . / -- .

Baekhyun can't figure out how to make the coffee machine work. He really should know how because he bought the stupid thing but to be honest he's never actually used it before. _Lu Han always does that..._ There's a lump in his throat and the coffee turns out bitter.

He can't bear to eat anything so he slumps in front of his computer to keep working on the newest floor plan.

The sticky note.

"I really do."

_I really really want to believe that._ He doesn't understand what's stopping him but he knows it's tearing them apart.

After a few clicks in autoCAD he gives up. He needs better coffee for one thing. Without bothering to change out of his pajamas, he throws on a jacket — Lu Han's jacket he realizes with a cold blow to the chest — and begins the long trek down to the main floor. His feet still hurt.

He's on the last flight of steps when sirens crack the thick silence. Rushing out through the lobby and into the chill, icy wind cutting across his cheeks, he sees an ambulance stopped at the apartment two doors down, and a shrouded figure on a stretcher being loaded in. There's a woman, her loud sobs filling the cold air. Time stops.

He doesn't need to ask the paramedics to know that the patient is dead.

And suddenly everything is moving too fast again.

Lu Han is gone and Baekhyun doesn't know if he's coming back.

.. / .-- .. .-.. .-.. / .- .-.. .-- .- -.-- ... / .-.. --- ...- . / -.-- --- ..-

The bus is finally pulling up, a few other people waiting on the platform now. Lu Han shakes his hands in a effort to dispell some of the chill that has settled into his heart, slowly standing up from the bench when —

There's a commotion at the end of the platform, strange on this silent Sunday morning — Lu Han shrugs and moves forward —

"Stop!"

The beautiful voice is out of breath and totally shredded but he'd recognize it anywhere.

"Baekhyun?"

As if in slow motion, he turns, watching Baekhyun limp gracefully across the cement and trampled white, snowflakes fluttering down around him, catching on his dark hair and fluttering in his thick eyelashes —

They collide, two planets ever circling but doomed to crash and burn in the end.

"I really love you," Lu Han murmurs in Baekhyun's ear, over the explosive thumping of his heartbeat, heavy footsteps breaking the ice.

"I know." And the melted feelings pour out of Baekhyun's eyes and stab the remaining drifts of snow around their feet.

It's never too late for spring.


End file.
